MSNBC
April 24, 2000

Reno: ‘No regrets’ over Elian action

               ‘Quiet time’ for father, son but relatives, others voice anger
 
 
               WASHINGTON, April 24 —  No politicians, TV cameras or lawyers in their way. That’s what
               Elian Gonzalez and his father needed, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno told NBC News
               Monday, and that’s what she provided by ordering that Elian be forcibly removed from his
               great uncle’s Miami home. But others — among them Reno’s mediator in the drama — were still
               questioning the commando tactics used to reunite Elian with his father.
                       RENO TOLD NBC’s “Today” show that she had “no regrets whatsoever” because she felt she had
               “bent over backwards” to accommodate the Miami relatives and Cuban American exile leaders opposed
               to seeing Elian return to Cuba.
                       “We tried and tried, we were told we’d have a deal if we did certain things and we did and it
               evaporated,” she said. “We kept getting mixed signals.”
                        Reno emphasized that while armed federal agents carried out the operation, “force was not used, it
               was a show of force” to prevent people from getting hurt.
                        The operation was designed to be as “least disruptive” as possible, Reno said, adding that “we did
               what we had to do” to allow Elian and his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, to have the “quiet time” needed
               to reunite after five months apart.
                        “It’s a time for politicians and television cameras and attorneys general and others to get out of their
               lives,” she added.
 
              MEDIATOR ‘SHOCKED’

                          Asked if she’d allow Elian’s Miami relatives to see him, Reno said she would be talking to psychiatrists
              and other experts Monday to discuss what’s best for the boy.
                          Those critical of Reno’s action include her own mediator in the drama, Miami lawyer Aaron Podhurst.
              Podhurst, a friend of Reno’s for the last 30 years, told “Today” that he was “shocked” by the events,
              which he saw unfold on television as he waited on hold to talk to Reno.
                          A deal, Podhurst thought, was just “minutes or within an hour away.”
                          Contradicting Reno’s assessment, Podhurst said the only changes made during negotiations were by the
             government, not Elian’s Miami relatives or Cuban American leaders.
 
                          QUIET EASTER FOR ELIAN

                                 Elian spent a quiet Easter with his father, stepmother
                          and stepbrother at Andrews Air Force Base outside
                          Washington.
                             There was a lunch of black beans and rice, and father
                          and son kicked a volleyball around and the four huddled
                          together on a park bench for a family photo.
                                 “They had a very quiet day, a family day — I don’t
                          think they had many visitors,” Gregory Craig, the lawyer for
                          the boy’s father, told The Associated Press late Sunday.
                                 “I know they went out and took a walk ... I know they
                          were visited by the (Andrews Air Force Base) Easter
                          Bunny. Our kids put together two Easter baskets for them
                          that my assistant took out with some little stuffed animals,”
                          Craig said.
 
                          RELATIVES OUTSIDE GATES

                                 But beyond the gates of the military compound, the
                          fierce battle over the boy raged on. His Miami relatives tried
                          for a second time to enter the base but were again turned
                          back.
                                 Critics of the Clinton administration on Capitol Hill
                          were quick to assail the raid, and a key House Republican
                          called for a congressional inquiry into the Justice
                          Department’s action.
                                 At a Capitol Hill news conference Sunday morning,
                          Elian’s cousin Marisleysis Gonzalez vowed that she would
                          not leave Washington until her family got to see him.
                                 Gonzalez also suggested the photo presented to the
                          media by Juan Miguel Gonzalez showing a happy Elian
                          reunited with his father was a fake. The boy’s hair, she said,
                          appeared to be longer than it had been earlier in the day.
                          The charge was echoed by Miami’s mayor, Joe Carollo.
                                 Craig called the claim “absurd,” adding that the photo
                          “came out of a disposable camera that Juan Miguel himself
                          had.”
                                 Craig added that the father wanted his own family to
                          have two or three days of quiet time before we “start trying
                          to rebuild bridges with other family members.”
                                 Craig offered the same advice to Gonzalez’s Miami
                          family. “I would have thought that the wiser course would
                          have been for them to rebuild bridges with other parts of the
                          family, rather than holding a press conference in Miami to
                          make their demands, than transporting that soap opera to
                          Washington, D.C., and holding another press conference to
                          make demands,” he said.
 
                          PROTEST AFTERMATH

                                 Saturday’s raid, dubbed Operation Reunion, sparked
                          outrage in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood, where
                          rioting protesters were held at bay by police with batons,
                          shields and pepper spray.
                                  More than 300 people were arrested, and three police
                          officers were hospitalized after being attacked by a
                           man with a baseball bat. One man was charged in
                           that incident.
                                  By midnight Saturday, the violent protests
                           subsided into a relatively peaceful parade as
                           thousands of cars with flags and honking horns
                           crawled through Miami’s Cuban-American
                            neighborhoods. The streets were quiet Sunday.
 
                           COURT BATTLE LOOMS

                                 Saturday’s action was the most dramatic development
                          to date in the international dispute over the little boy, who
                          was plucked from the sea on Thanksgiving Day after the
                          boat carrying him from Cuba sank. His mother and 10
                          others on the boat died.
                                 The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta is
                          scheduled to hear arguments May 11 on whether Elian can
                          seek asylum without his father’s permission, and whether
                          the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service should
                          have interviewed the boy to determine his wishes. The case
                          is being brought by Elian’s Miami relatives, but victory
                          would not necessarily mean the boy would return to them.

                               Juan Miguel Gonzalez has said he will remain in the United
                          States at least until the appeal has been settled. If the boy is
                          granted a hearing and, ultimately, political asylum, it will
                          raise several new questions: Will Elian’s father choose to
                          stay in the United States if his son asks for — and is granted
                          — political asylum? Will the boy even ask for political
                          asylum now that he is no longer living with his Miami
                          relatives?
                                 Currently, parents generally speak for their children on
                          such matters. If Elian is granted asylum, that could have
                          far-reaching consequences, Deputy U.S. Attorney General
                          Eric Holder said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. If
                          foreign kids visiting Disneyland with their parents decided
                          they liked it so much they wanted to stay, Holder asked,
                          would they then be free to ask for political asylum in spite of
                          their parents’ wishes?
                                 The case, legal experts say, could end in a matter of
                          weeks, but might drag on for months.
                                 Soon after reuniting with his son, Juan Miguel Gonzalez
                          signed papers officially taking custody of the boy and
                          agreeing not to take him out of the country.
                                 Elian and his family are expected to leave Andrews Air
                          Force Base in a few days for another nearby location.
 
                          GOP BACKLASH

                                 Criticism of the raid from conservatives on Capitol Hill
                          was swift and strong.
                                 On NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, the third-ranking
                          Republican in the House, Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas, said,
                          “You bet there’ll be congressional hearings.”
                                 Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said the
                          armed raid “clearly was not justified” and blamed President
                          Bill Clinton. “This could only happen in Castro’s Cuba,” he
                          added.
                                 The president said that the Justice Department
                          “showed great restraint, patience and compassion” in its
                          negotiations with Elian’s Miami relatives but that the time
                          had come for the government to take action. “The law has
                          been upheld, and that was the right thing to do,” Clinton
                          said.
                                The episode also had an impact on the presidential
                          election campaign: In a statement from Al Gore’s campaign
                          office in Nashville, the vice president repeated his previous
                          stand that “this issue should have been handled through a
                          family court and with the family coming together.”
                                 Cuban President Fidel Castro praised Reno on Sunday
                          for “just” action in returning Elian to his father.